A former cocaine addict who was keeping drugs in return for a cut from his dealer has been jailed.

Whitley man Aaron Nelson was arrested more than a year ago for two counts of possession of cocaine with intent to supply but said he had stayed off the drug since his arrest.

The 29-year-old now has a four-month old daughter from a previous relationship and told Reading Crown Court last Friday he had since turned his life around and wanted to be a proper father to his daughter.

Nelson, from Basingstoke Road, who the court heard had attempted suicide three years ago and suffered from sickle cell anaemia, admitted the charges on the first day of trial in June stating he had merely been holding the drugs for his dealer.

He had been caught with 27.7g of crack cocaine and a large quantity of cocaine on August 13, last year.

The Recorder John Jenkins condemned Nelson for his part in the drug trade in Reading and said only a custodial sentence was sufficient.

He said: “You, as a customer, provided a valuable function for the dealer.

“The dealers must simply not be able to outsource their drugs on the basis that nothing will happen to the customer when they have a ready supply of people to deal to.”